This invention relates generally to processor-based systems which link to other processor-based systems using appropriate connections.
Processor-based systems may communicate with one another over communication links. These links may be wired or wireless links. For example, two processor-based systems may communicate over a network which may be a wired connection or they may communicate using a radio frequency connection.
Software applications on one system often need to understand what services are available from other nodes on the same network. As one example, a browser on a private intranet may need to know whether a web proxy service that resides on another system is available. In a mobile network environment, the physical network link between one or more nodes may change from one second to the next due to a variety of intermittent factors including radio signal propagation, battery life and physical proximity between two processor-based systems. Not only may the state of the link change, but in many systems, the address of a particular node may also change dynamically.
Thus, there is a need to enable applications at one node to know the state of a link which can connect applications on one node to specific services on one or more remote nodes.